ss upon the
importance of having at the head of the Department a new Minister who
should be directly responsible to Parliament; and, accordingly, it was
arranged that the Vice-President should be its direct Ministerial head.
The Act provided that the Department should be assisted in its work by a
Council of Agriculture and two Boards, and also by a Consultative
Committee to advise upon educational questions. But before discussing
the constitution of these bodies, it is necessary to explain the nature
of the task assigned to the new Department which began work in April,
1900. It was created to fulfil two main purposes. In the first place,
it was to consolidate in one authority certain inter-related functions
of government in connection with the business concerns of the people
which, until the creation of the Department, were scattered over some
half-dozen Boards, and to place these functions under the direct control
and responsibility of the new Minister. The second purpose was to
provide means by which the Government and the people might work together
in developing the resources of the country so far as State intervention
could be legitimately applied to this end.

To accomplish the first object, two distinct Government departments, the
Veterinary Department of the Privy Council and the Office of the
Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, were merged in the new Department. The
importance to the economic life of the country of having the laws for
safeguarding our flocks and herds from disease, our crops from insect
pests, our farmers from fraud in the supply of fertilisers and feeding
stuffs and in the adulteration of foods (which compete with their
products), administered by a Department generally concerned for the
farming industry need not be laboured. Similarly, it was well that the
laws for the protection of both sea and inland fisheries should be
administered by the authority whose function it was to develop these
industries. There was also transferred from South Kensington the
administration of the Science and Arts grants and the grant in aid of
technical instruction, together with the control of several national
institutions, the most important being the Royal College of Science and
the Metropolitan School of Art; for they, in a sense, would stand at the
head of much of the new work which would be required for the
contemplated agricultural and industrial developments. The Albert
Institute at Glasnevin and the Munster Inst